Ordnungspolizei

The Ordnungspolizei (Orpo) was the uniformed police service of Nazi Germany from 1936 to 1945. The police force was nominally a part of the Interior Ministry, but it was controlled by the Schutzstaffel (SS) of the Nazi Party, and regional police jurisdiction was removed in favor of the central Nazi government; they united the police forces of municipal areas, cities, and rural areas. The policemen were nicknamed the Gruene Polizei ("green police") for their green shirts, and they policed the civilian populations of the conquered and colonized countries of Germany beginning in spring 1940, during World War II. In 1944, the Orpo had a strength of 401,300 personnel, and they were involved in war crimes such as the Lidice massacre and other reprisals. Orpo leader Kurt Daluege was executed for war crimes by Czechoslovakia after the war's end.